Madam, – I am surprised at the lack of commentary about the facts of our economy with the release of the 2009 national accounts by the CSO. There are two broad definitions of a depression as either a) a fall in real (volume) GDP in excess of 10 per cent from its peak or b) a recession lasting two years or more. The recently published national accounts show that Ireland’s GDP has fallen 12.7 per cent from Q4 2007 to Q4 2009. Therefore, Ireland now meets both accepted definitions of an economy in a depression.
Why the silence about this fact among our economic and political commentariat? – Yours, etc,